anhall9-blog

[anhall9-blog]

Writing Process

The main reason I had for starting this blog was to complete this particular assignment. I thought that a post here would be a great way to compile all of the different images, recordings, and texts that I wanted to include.

What is my writing process? As I thought about it, I found seven steps that I used in almost all of my writing. Those steps are: prepare, brainstorm, outline, draft, revise alone, revise with others, and publish.

Prepare

To ensure success in my writing process, I like to take some measures to prepare myself and the space around me. First, I make sure that I have a drink and some snacks near me. That way, I don’t end up spending half an hour in the kitchen when I should have been working. Then I gather all of the materials I need to write, like my laptop, textbooks, and other reference materials. If I’m writing on paper, I make sure to have pens and highlighters ready to go. Finally, I fire up some music. Music helps me to drown out some of the other noises around me with sounds I can control.

This is one of my favorite places to sit when I write. I’ll write just about anywhere that I feel comfortable, and this chair is definitely comfortable. Some of the things I like to have with me when I write are in the chair.

Brainstorm and Outline

I’m grouping these two steps together because I often complete them at the same time. When I start on a writing project, I’ll grab a piece of scrap paper or open up a new page in OneNote to start brainstorming. If there’s a prompt, I’ll copy and paste it to the top of the page, or if there isn’t I just write my own short prompt to guide me. Using that prompt as a guide, I start generating ideas to satisfy all of the requirements. When there’s a bulleted list of guiding questions, such as in this assignment, I like to just go down the list answering them. I write down everything that I think of. This is also the step where I gather any sources and evidence that I need. While some people set a time limit on this process, I usually just keep going until my ideas are starting to become more cohesive. The brainstorm for this assignment is the left column below.

The right-hand column moves into the next step - outline. I usually find that there is a natural point when I want to start grouping together ideas from the brainstorm. This is where I begin grouping and creating a flow between them. I gather together ideas that make sense to write about together and then try to determine the order they should go in. For this assignment, it wasn’t hard to determine the order of the concepts, since they just flow in the same order as my process generally does. While there are times that I need to go back and revisit some of the steps, the overall flow is in this direction.

Draft

Hey, look! That’s what I’m doing right now. This is one of the hardest parts of writing for me; the part that feels like the most work. I have to take all of those vague ideas that I wrote for myself and turn them into a piece that others can read and comprehend. This stage is pretty self explanatory.

When I was trying to come up with a way to capture the essence of drafting, one thing came to mind: the sound of the keyboard clicking. To many people, this is an annoying sound. There are special keyboards made to prevent the sounds of typing entirely. However, to me, it sounds like progress. As I hear the little clicks beneath my fingers, I know that I’m moving forward.

These clicks were recorded while I was working on this project, so they’re very much a part of this piece.

Revise (alone)

Before I hand off my work to anyone else, I like to take some time to look at it on my own. I’ll usually read through a draft once to check for massive, glaring issues. I run what I’ve written through some sort of spell/grammar-check (I like Grammarly), and I work on the content and flow a little bit. This gives me a head start for when anyone else looks at my work. If I fix spelling and grammar on my own, it gives them a chance to comment more on the actual content and style.

Revise (with others)

To me, this is a separate step from revising alone. Up until this point, the writing has all been done on my own. What I have is now a piece that I’m relatively proud of, and it can be difficult to ask for criticism on that work. It takes a different frame of mind to let suggestions in. When I am ready to let someone else see my work, who I take it to depends on the setting. If I want feedback on something that is for a certain class and requires deep technical knowledge to comprehend, I’ll usually try to find a classmate to review my work. If I’m really trying to impress someone, like in a scholarship application, I have some English major friends that I send my draft to. But if I need just anyone to give me a brief critique, I’ll usually turn to my family. My sister and I edit each others papers quite often.

Publish

After going back through some of the steps and making sure the piece is exactly as I want it, it’s time to publish. I hit post, submit the assignment, press send, or do whatever else I need to do to make sure that it reaches the intended audience. And as soon as I’m done revising this, that’s exactly what I’ll do.

[anhall9-blog]

Getting Started

This semester, I enrolled in ENG 105. As a way to further develop the skills I was learning in class, I knew I needed a place to write where composing didn't feel like a burden. During one of the assignments, the idea of starting a tumblr blog was posed. I thought this would be a great place to practice writing and compose some multimedia assignments. Thus begins my ENG 105 blog, and all the ramblings it shall contain.